Sunday Replay 06.29.08

This replay is going out a little later than usual – I spent part of yesterday and today without internet access at the in-laws…  But there’s something else.  Being as honest and transparent as I can be, I just wasn’t on top of my game yesterday.  Part of it was probably due to my hurt knee and the upper respiratory thing – but I can’t shake the feeling that I was “off” a little bit.  Please don’t misread this as a cry for some “encouraging” comments and emails – it’s not that at all.  Just one of those Sunday’s all pastors have every once and awhile…

But I know this - God can hit a straight lick with a crooked stick!  It was a blessing to see some of our new folks take communion for the first time!  And it’s always awesome to share communion with Vic and all the boys.

And worship band, you did your usual fine job.  Another one of the things I dig about you guys is how you play the hand you’re dealt, and go with the flow every Sunday in a place where the out-of-the -ordinary can be quite commonplace.

Our message was “Life out of Death.”  In John 12, Jesus said that when the seed falls to the ground and dies, it produces much fruit.  That truth runs so counter to the way we think – we believe that death follows life, when it’s really the other way around…  Life follows death!  It happened to Lazarus and ultimately, to Jesus!  When we die – to ourselves, our sin, and our selfish desires – only then can we really live.

We’re looking at a couple of busy weeks:  Our July 4th Celebration on Friday and then our booth at the Fair where we give away bottled water and popsicles.  If you’d like to get involved Friday, just show up abput 4:30 PM.  To help with the Fair, please sign the schedule in the foyer.

Have a great week!

Hobbled…

I blew my left knee out during Bible Beach Club last week… I was running (!) to answer the phone when my right knee popped and down I went – hyper-extending my left knee.  So I’m in a brace and trying to stay off of it for the most part.  I’ve made a couple of hilarious (and pathetic) attempts to use crutches – if there was any video of those attempts, it would be a hit on YouTube!

I haven’t gone to the doctor – yet.  Helpful friends and family have advanced several interesting possible explanations, but good ol’ ”typical male pride/aversion to doctors” probably comes closest.  I will go next week, if it’s not better…  No, really, I will…  Yes, I promise…

Nothing makes you appreciate walking like not being able to walk…

Care and Feeding

An interesting post on Brian Jones’ blog yesterday, prompted by a question about starting a midweek “believer’s service” that supposedly takes people “deeper”.  (Hat tip to BW for the post)

“I’m not being fed” is a term invented by lazy, spiritually obese, self-centered pastors and church-hopping religious consumers. Never, ever, under any circumstances let your personal apprehensions or these kinds of people steer your church off course.

Your goal is to help your people become disciples, and you know and I know that disciples aren’t made through “services,” they’re made skin on skin over long periods of time, in the presence of other disciples out and about spreading the kingdom of God.

My advice: teach your Christians to feed themselves during your weekend services, but make it interesting enough that you still capture the imagination of people far from God.

 OK, I would link to the post, but it appears to have been removed???  Here’s a link to Brian’s blog, maybe the post is out for cleaning or editing, or something…  Brian Jones’ Blog

 

Can I wear jeans?

 Jon Acuff – of “Stuff Christians Like” fame – has a new website: Can I Wear Jeans? to help people who are searching for a church find some answers to the questions that typically get overlooked in a church’s PR material or on their website.

Here’s part of Jon’s “purpose statement”: Most church directory sites only offer info such as phone number, website, etc. The ones that list more usually charge churches money so you end up getting descriptions like “Our church is awesome. Come see its awesomeness.” People that go there never get to tell you the inside story and say things like, “Our worship leader is great and is a huge metrosexual with a goatee. You will dig him.” No one gets to be honest and say, “Come early, because traffic can suck.” No one ever gets to answer the greatest question of all, “Can I wear jeans?”

Jon has rapidly become one of my all time favorite writers and commentators on Christian culture.  Check out his new site – you might even want to list your church.  I just listed ours.

Perspective…

Would you like to be in the top 25% percent of the world’s richest people?  You only have to have an annual income of $1,487.  Yep, that’s one thousand, four hundred, and eighty-seven bucks.

$25,300 annual income gets you into the top 10% of the world’s richest people…

$33,700 annual incomes gets you into the top 5%…

$47,500 gets you into the top 1%…

Just a little something for us to think about when we start thinking we’re “poor.”

{Source: Global Rich List generator}

Bible Beach Club 2008

What’s a Bible Beach Club?  It’s 93 kids and 30 volunteers… 1500 water balloons… It’s “Jumping in the House of God”… It’s Pastor in a different funny wig every day… It’s crafts that don’t quite go together the way the instructions show…  Its learning about God in an exciting and fun environment… It’s seeing kids commit their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

What a week - we had a blast!  There were dozens of “first timers,” a huge and growing bunch of preschoolers (future trend alert!), and awesome volunteers!  Our theme was “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.”  The material was fantastic – tip of the hat to Thomas Nelson for putting it together.

Some “WOW” moments: Recreating Gideon’s attack on the Midianite camp… A “real” working fiery furnace… An undersea adventure… and a shipwreck-inducing storm, complete with howling wind and water!

Great comments from parents and children:  “My kids can’t stop talking about this!”  “We are so grateful for this program!”  “Your VBS is the best!”  “Can we do this again next week?” (AND I got booed when I announced that Friday was the last day!)

We recognized our youth pastors – the brother/sister team of Chris and Anya – who have been present as students, helpers, or leaders in all 17 Bible Beach Clubs!  They have attended a total of 85 days of BBC!  Tana, who led the preschoolers, has worked in 16 BBC’s, for a total of 80 days!  Awesome commitments and they do a great job year after year.

We are so blessed to have this opportunity every year!  We’ve already set the date for next year: June 22 – 26, 2009!

 

Sunday Replay 06.22.08

One of my frequent prayers is that the amazing blessings we receive in our times of corporate worship never become routine – that Jubilee always maintains the ability to be amazed and surprised at how God moves among us.

That’s why I so appreciate the worship band.  They’re creative and innovative, willing to learn new songs and use a variety of “styles” to help people enter in to worship. (Example: Their exploration of new ways to be used by God to keep people engaged and focused during prayer and ministry time at the end of service)  I also love that their vision of the future outruns their present abilities!  Their grasp of “here we are” never stops them from saying, “But we want to be there!”  I’m convinced that’s the key to growing and developing in ministry.  I’ve said before, and will say it again, but you guys are awesome – great job Sunday!

We concluded our “I Can’t Believe You Said That!” message series with a message titled “God’s Got Satan Under Control.”  Looking deeper into the life of Job, we saw that Satan is not winning and can never win.  His ability is limited and under God’s permissive will.  We get into trouble when we believe Satan’s first lie – “You can be like God!” – and when we look at our circumstances from a worldly perspective.  The only way to having peace on this planet, is by seeing our life as belonging to God. We’ve got to always be looking above for our strength. Paul writes in Colossians 3:2, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”  The Greek word for “set” in that passage means to have a “fixation.” We need to have a fixation on God.  The same word is found in Hebrews 12:2, where we’re told to “fix our eyes on Jesus…”

Bible Beach Club was awesome – more in that in another post.  And our Student ministry took 52 people to Six Flags-Kentucky Kingdom on Saturday!  All reports are that they had a blast and got thoroughly exhausted.

Preparations are in full swing for our July Fourth Community Cookout!  For several years, our parking lot has been the best seat in town for viewing the fireworks show at the town park  This year we’re going to offer our “guests” some free food and drink, along with some great live music.  We’re looking forward to a grat time, and there are plenty of ways for everyone to get involved.  Check the sign-up sheets in the foyer.

Officially, summer has just started.  But in a month our “busy season” will wind down and it’ll will be back to school time!  I’m getting excited about this fall – among other things, we will be challenged to put our faith into action and we’ll do something that has never been done in the almost 26 year history of our church… Stay tuned to find out what THAT is!

Have a great week!

Sunday Replay 06.15.08

The Replay is kinda late this week – we were busy today kicking off our Bible Beach Club children’s outreach – more about that in a sec…

Father’s Day was a blast!  We started the day serving breakfast – biscuits and gravy, the quickest way to this ol’ southern boy’s heart!  Thanks to Sherri and her crew for putting that together!

Worship was simply amazing – Worship band, I hope you know you took a tremendous step forward Sunday!  There was adoration, celebration, and conviction in an atmosphere of joyous freedom.  It was another incredible Sunday! 

We continued our “I Can’t Believe You Said That!” message series, with an installment entitled, “That Person in the Mirror Isn’t You!”  Followers of Jesus have a new identity, and what we see when we look in the mirror is the outer shell of the person we used to be.  Jesus recreates us from the inside out, a process the Bible calls spiritual “circumcision,” and being “born again.”  But if we still believe that our old flesh is who we really are, we are condemning ourselves to a life of constant worry and uncertainty.  We are new creations – we belong to God, we’re united in spirit with Him, we have the mind of Christ, we cannot be separated from the love of God, and we have the peace of knowing who we really are.  Our identity is guaranteed by God!

Bible Beach Club got off to a fantastic start on Monday!  We had great attendance for the first day – when we hit 100 students, I get to smooch with a cute young pig.  The biggest blessing for me is the 20 Middle School students who are spending the week volunteering and serving – they’re fixing lunch and drinks, preparing snacks, filling 250 water balloons a day (!), helping with crafts and taking care of facility clean-up and reset.  Thanks, “BBC Army”!

As soon as BBC is over, we will bear down on getting ready for our July 4th community outreach – cooking burgers and dogs, lots of great, live music, and the best spot in town to watch the community fireworks show.  Keep watching for ways you can be involved – it’s going to be a blast!

Have a great week!

 

Sunday Replay 06.08.08

I’ll just plunge right in – worship was awesome today!  From the tangible evidence of people gathered up front, kneeling before the Lord to pray and worship Him… to the “Heavenly Practice” of joining our voices with those around God’s throne who worship Him by repeating, “Holy, holy, holy,” over and over – today was something special.  Again, I was blown away by our “little” worship band’s determination to lead us in glorifying God.  Thanks for all you do!

We continued the “I Can’t Believe You Said That!” series with a message called “Trying to Live for Jesus Will Kill You!”  We saw that the true test of whether we’re being told or taught the truth is: Does it liberate us and make us freer than we were?  We saw that God hasn’t called us to try to live for Jesus – He’s called us to allow Jesus to live in us, through us, as us.  We saw that our model for this kind of “surrendered living” is Jesus, who said, “the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing…” and “I can do nothing on My own initiative.”   And we saw that we’re either trying or trusting… Trying is a work of the flesh; trusting is a work of the Spirit.

Bible Beach Club is ONE WEEK AWAY!  Our theme this year is “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” focusing on what it takes to be a real hero in God’s eyes.  We are so pumped for this year’s BBC – well all except for the pig a certain pastor will have to kiss when we break the 100 kid barrier…

Our Summer small groups will be getting underway in the next couple of weeks.  This year we’re offering the Love and Respect conference in small group format, Bible book studies, and an encore presentation of the Mayberry Bible Study.  Registrations have already begun – reserve your place soon!

Have a great week!

Not as “Reveal”-ing as you thought…

For quite awhile the blogosphere and “Christian” radio has been littered with articles and reports that said,

“Willow Creek Repents!”

“Hybels admits ‘We were wrong.’”

This misinformation was based on a flawed understanding of the Reveal study, in which Willow Creek evaluated their evangelism and disciple-making processes. You could almost see the bloggers and talk show hosts dancing with glee as they said, in effect, “SEE!? We told you that seeker stuff was bad!”

I have been part of that small chorus of voices in the wilderness saying, “Um, excuse me, the Reveal study does not say what you think it says.”  The case could be made that most of the “reporters” didn’t bother to actually read the document, except in the most cursory and superficial way possible. 

Well now, Willow Creek has released an interview with the man himself, Bill Hybels, that underscores how seriously misrepresented Willow Creek and the Reveal study have been. 

I suppose it would be too much to expect any kind of retraction from the “discernment ministry” types… I’m afraid that in their minds it will function as some kind of weird justification for their continued attacks.

Here’s the link: Bill Hybels Responds to Misinformation Regarding Willow Creek